International Journal on Cybernetics & Informatics (IJCI) Vol. 12, No.

1, February 2023

CHALLENGES OF INTEGRATING VIRTUAL

LEARNING PRACTICE IN ZIMBABWE
SECONDARY SCHOOLS DURING COVID-19
Dudziro Nhengu

College of business, peace, leadership and governance, Africa University,

Mutare, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT
COVID-19 brought multiple challenges to the education sector globally. While introduction of
virtual learning advanced benefits such as lowered costs of education, greater flexibility, easy
access and reduced need for physical infrastructure in economically viable nations, many
economically challenged nations in the Global South experienced risks and challenges from
online education. This study investigated the challenges faced by the Zimbabwe education
sector in integrating effective virtual learning practice into the secondary school system in
Harare Metropolitan province since the advent of Covid-19. A triangulation of research
methods including an online survey and key informant interviews conducted with curriculum
specialists, teachers and learners, and a review of available literature, aided the collection of
primary and secondary data for the study. NVIVO and grounded theory were used to analyse
and organise the compiled data into thematic data sets, which were in turn used to theorise
befitting findings for the study. Study findings established an array of challenges which
reinforced each other to hinder effective learning during the lockdown. Substantial academic
and policy research has focused on health specific impacts of Covid-19, while a few studies that
have explored the effect of Covid-19 on education have not zeroed in on the context specific
geopolitical risks of the pandemic on countries with challenged economies. This study seeks to
contribute to this knowledge gap. The study proffers recommendations for improving
preparedness for virtual learning in secondary schools during crisis times.

KEYWORDS
Virtual, education tools, Covid-19, education, curricula & Zimbabwe

1. INTRODUCTION
This study investigates the risks and challenges faced by the Zimbabwe education sector in
integrating effective virtual learning practice into the secondary school system during the Covid-
19 lockdown. Focusing on a case of the Harare Metropolitan province, the study was guided by
the following research questions: What was the role of education technologies in influencing the
continuity of secondary school education after the Covid-19 lockdown? What challenges did
teachers and learners encounter in the changeover from face-to-face to virtual learning? Which
ICT tools did secondary level learners utilise most to access virtual learning? The study is in five
sections: the introduction and background, the literature review, the methodology section, the
results and findings, and finally the conclusions and recommendations.

The advent of the Corona Virus (Covid-19), whose first outbreak was experienced in China in
2019 created multiple challenges for global citizens, and one of them was how to adjust a system
David C. Wyld et al. (Eds): NLDML, CCITT, EDUTEC, AUEN -2023
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 International Journal on Cybernetics & Informatics (IJCI) Vol. 12, No.1, February 2023
of education anchored around physical schools and face-to face learning (OECD, 2020). As the
pandemic reached its peak, at least 188 countries, representing 91% of enrolled global learners
shut down schools as part of the measures to seek to contain the spread of the virus (UNESCO,
2020. A transitional process characterised by a creative deployment of learning and
communication platforms and institutions that traditionally were thought of as being conducted in
a physical environment to virtual platforms was the only was the globe could ensure continuity in
learning and other communication processes (Turnbull, 2021).

The expediency that policy makers and national governments globally implemented the
changeover to virtual learning did not match the reality that was needed to make this transition a
smooth one, and part of that reality entailed a consideration of the geographies of insecurity that
exist between nations, especially between the West and the Global South. The notion of
geographies of insecurity brings to the fore the heterogeneities of global regions and nations, and
the different ways in which they experience the impact of development trends and dynamics,
such as national disasters, wars, climate change, to mention a few (Philo, 2012). As such the
insecurities faced by the world’s majority, citizens in the Global South, and the measures that
may be necessary to improve their security, may not be the same as the experiences of the elite in
the West. Developing nations had no option but to, likewise, embrace virtual learning as the
necessary measure to enhance affordability and accessibility of higher education. Owing to the
economic and related infrastructural challenges already prevailing in these developing nations,
especially those still suffering from economic set-backs, introducing virtual learning practice
came with a plethora of added challenges, in the face of already existing challenges, as well as
the added budgetary constraints wrought by the requirements to mitigate Covid-19. Within this
rubric, this study sought to investigate the challenges faced by the Zimbabwe education sector in
integrating effective virtual learning practice into the secondary school system since the advent of
Covid-19.

The study presents findings from a desk review of foregoing literature on Covid-19 and virtual
learning, as well as an online survey with 30 curriculum specialists and 35 secondary school
students and key informant interviews with 35 secondary school teachers in Harare Metropolitan
province, regarding the experiences and challenges that they encountered following the
introduction of the virtual learning system post Covid-19 in Zimbabwe. Thematic content
analysis using NVIVO and grounded theory was effective in analysing the compiled data.
Quantitative findings from the survey proved that while many teachers and students face resource
challenges to access mobile devices and internet, online technological tools remained the only
possible means available to access academic information. Findings from the content analysis
likewise concurred with the quantitative data findings, demonstrated through the seven key
ermeging themes which include inadequate qualified technology teachers, shortage of resources
for acquisition and maintenance of state of the art learning tools, electricity and internet
challenges, poor parental involvement, unavailability of legislated policy on technology usage,
ignorance of technological know-how and technophobia.

The key argument in the study is that although mobile learning cannot replace physical learning,
it remains a necessary alternative during lockdown periods because mobile technologies
transcend geographic barriers. A further argument is the need to lessen the currently existing
dynamic of geographies of insecurity, especially the economic and technological barriers in the
face of pandemics that know no geographical barriers (Philo, 2012). As such, policy makers at
national, trans-national, regional and global levels have to work together for realistic and context
sensitive policies that can effectively address the myriad of challenges currently faced by
developing nations in attaining effective virtual learning practices that match global standards.

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2. BACKGROUND
In Sub-Sahara Africa, 60% of youths between the ages of 15 and 17 are reported to be out of
school (UNESCO, 2022). The World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Information Technology
Report produced by the World Economic Forum (2016) has positioned Zimbabwe fourth out of
all African countries, in the quality of mathematics and science education, with a literary rate of
83.58 percent. In 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO, 2021) ranked Zimbabwe’s at 9th position in Africa, at 86,4 percent, in the area of
adult literacy. Zimbabwe utilises a formal and non-formal education system. The Formal
education systems are recognised as such by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education
and the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovative, Science and Technology
Development, and the non-formal education system while the non-formal system is an alternative
or complement to the formal education System, offering part-time schooling for learners, who do
both academic and professional courses (Zimstat, 2020). The Zimbabwe curricula mandates 7
years of primary education and6 years of secondary schooling before proceeding to tertiary, and
learning is in English and either Shona or Ndebele, the two vernacular languages which are
recognised in the education system so far.

The design of the Zimbabwean education system is two years of early childhood schooling
known as Early Childhood Development (E2222CD), for children between 3 to 5 years of age;
seven years of primary school and four to six years of secondary education, then higher education
in the college and university system (Zim-factsheet, 2022). In line with Sustainable Development
Goal 4 which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong
learning opportunities for all”, (United Nations Development Programme, 2015) Zimbabwe holds
education as a fundamental right, and has a policy for compulsory primary and secondary
education. The country’s education system is regulated through the Education Act of 1987.

There is evidence, though varied, which proves that many school learners dropped out of school
as a result of Covid-19 in Zimbabwe. The Family Aids Caring Trust ZIMBABWE (Fact), pegged
the figure of schools dropouts since pandemic began in 2020 at 20 000, while the Human Rights
report (2021), estimated that 840 000 children dropped out of school during the COVID-19
pandemic. It is noteworthy that the reasons for these school drop-outs also included marriages,
early pregnancies and HIV/Aids, in addition to Covid-19, as major reasons for children,
especially girls, dropping out of school. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe
estimated that 840 000 children dropped out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic (Human
Rights Report, 2021). The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education on the other hand
contested both figures presented above, arguing that 290 children left school because of various
illnesses, 5331 dropped out due to marriage, pregnancy led to the dropout of 4676 children,
bringing the total of dropouts countrywide to 10 297 for that year, half the number reported by
the Family Aids Caring Trust. Over and above these three arguments, this study observes that in a
country with a huge rural-urban divide in terms of communication and information flow, access
to technology and related resources, it would be difficult to come up with an etched in stone
figure of school-drop outs during Covid-19. Firstly, the notion of school drop-outs itself would
have to be clearly defined first, given the reality that at one time all institutions of learning had to
shut down for quite a significant period while policy makers. Institutional leaders and the
government jostled for ways of containing and dealing with the new phenomena of Covid-19.
Adapting to the new situation through introducing virtual learning in schools was characterised
by a general lack of uniformity and consistency. Furthermore, most of the rural schools in areas
that have no electricity and internet services were not able to catch up with this new trend of
virtual learning, until the end of the lockdown period.

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3. LITERATURE REVIEW
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused exceptional global disruptions on people’s social, political
and economic since the Second World War (WW11) (Kaisara & Bwalya, 2021). In the education
sector, the pandemic caused closure of learning institutions, further increasing the rural - urban
divide in access to education, knowledge and information, hence in the utilisation of information
and communication technologies (ICTs). As such, close to 1,184,126,508 learners have been
affected by school closures globally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (UNESCO, 2020).
While it is undeniable that ICTs have been used for virtual learning for a long time in the
developed world, in Africa, there is no agreement on when virtual learning became a practice in
the education sector, and this can be well explained by the issue of scarcity of resources to access
ICTs and internet, as well as by the limited and lack of uniformity in the knowledge of ICT
usage. In Southern Africa, use of ICTs can be traced back to the 1960s (Alkharang & Ghinea,
2013, Alkharang & Ghinea, 2013), while virtual learning started between 1990 and 1999
(Bagarukayo & Kalema, 2015; Hubackova, 2015). As far back as 2009, Donner and Gitau (2009)
foretold that the future of Africa would be techno-centric. Rumanyika, Tedre, Mikko and
Mramba (2019) likewise argue that Africa has the highest technology, especially mobile phone
adoption rates in the world, further projecting this trend to remain so till at least 2025 (GSMA,
2019).

In Zimbabwe, although many private schools and elite government schools were already
accustomed to the usage of ICTs as tools of managing knowledge and increasing engagement
(Gunga & Ricketts, 2007; Mohammadi, 2015), very few schools already had plans, modalities
and a culture of virtual learning, or of using ICTs as a remote mode of instruction information,
and learning content (Bhuasiri, Xaymoungkhoun, Zo, Rho & Ciganek, 2012), before the advent
of COVID-19. This being said, success of Intergrating online education technologies in education
cannot be generalised from the national to the global levels, as it was anchored on social
determinants of successful virtual learning such as the previously prevailing economic, social and
political conditions in any given context. The capability of policy makers to plan for inclusive
and effective education service delivery at national, regional, and global levels should address the
context specific economic strengths or vulnerabilities of nations, as a prerequisite for making
suitable recommendations, decisions and reforms. Global institutional power structures and
mechanisms are organised in a manner that naturally gives developed nations hegemony over
developing ones, in turn breeding systems that saliently deploy discriminatory and skewed
policies and services in a top-down manner. This argument brings in two notions which are
important for this study, which are geographies of insecurity and geography of economic
inequality.

Geographies of insecurity in this paper emphasises firstly the fact that Covid 19 was inherently
geographical in its impact on society secondly (Philo, 2012). After its outbreak in Wuhan, China,
the spread of the pandemic spread from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, first in countries with
intense proximity and relations with China, and later to other countries globally, taking advantage
of the forces of globalisation to spread all countries (Amdaoud, Bourdin, Costanzo, Iatu,
Ibanescu, Jeanne, Levratto, Noiret and Succurro, 2020). Amdaoud et al (2020) , formulated the
theory of spatial autocorrelation, which helps to clarify the patterns in the spread of Covid-19.
The theory of spatial autocorrelation condents that close geographical units are more affected
than distant geographical units. As such, these spatial heterogeneities in time frames within which
Covod-19 reached different countries determined first the impact on the epidemic on citizens and
on development processes. Secondly, these spatial heterogeneities also determined the response
rate of various nations to the effects of the pandemic, the decisions for lockdown periods and
levels, as well as the responses in couching suitable stop gap measures for various services, and
in this case for the virtual learning services. As such, while the first Covid-19 lockdown was
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enforced in January in China, in Zimbabwe, the first lock-down was enforced three or four
months later. China being a technologically advanced country muted the idea of transitioning
from physical to virtual learning as early as January 2020. In Zimbabwe the first lock down was
operationalised in April 2021.It took the country long to figure out modalities for transitioning to
virtual learning. Furthermore, when virtual learning finally took off, it was possible only for a
few learners in some urban areas, while the majority of learners in both urban and rural areas
could not afford it, reality that leads this argument to the notion of geography of economic
inequality (van Ham, Manley & Tammaru, 2022).

The geography of economic inequality predicts the spatial categorization of both learners and
teachers by income, both vertically and horizontally, as well as the associated modeling of
opportunities and affordability (van Ham et al, 2022). Agreeably, the usage of ICTs landed
people into different levels of vulnerability, depending on their geographic positioning as well as
their economic and social standing. Such geographies of inequality thus range on a spectrum:
differences in access between individuals and among groups in urban areas where, although there
was internet access, some students and earners could not afford the expenses associated with
acquiring ICT gadgets and internet, and differences in access and affordability among urban and
rural residents, especially in those remote rural areas where access to internet has been for long
devoid. As such, the disruptive manner of Covid-19 in the education sector was on universal
historic record.

The OECD (2020), supports this argument, positing that in times of crisis, a holistic approach to
education addresses students’ learning, social and emotional needs. This includes the need to take
care of the needs of marginalised students, who are more at risk of increased vulnerability are less
likely to receive the support that they require, for example when they fail to acquire the required
ICTs and internet services. Material disparities among students have considerable effects on
students’ sense of belonging to schools, as well as on their feelings of self-worth (OECD, 2020).

The Zimbabwe education sector, like education sectors in other countries globally, utilised all
opportunities possible to use ICTs for virtual learning purposes during Covid-19. Mare (2013)
and Rambe and Bere (2013), argue that even before the advent of Covid-19, the usage of ICTs is
an unavoidable development that has had a huge transformative power on various facets of life in
the history of African development. Covid-19 was thus, a catalyst to development through
increased usage of ICTs which became inevitable owing to the reality on the ground. The term
‘increased usage’ can also refer to aspects of inclusion and participation across gender and class
divides. Where virtual learning technologies and practices used to be a preserve for the affluent,
Covid-19 made it a necessity, prompting even the less affluent to stretch their means to ensure
that they had access to and usage of technology, which became inevitable. Shen and Ho (2020)
argue that virtual learning has positively impacted on the performance of students, on their
interest in learning as well as on learner performance wrought by the attraction that ICT usage
brings (Zongozzi, 2020). Virtual learning has also promoted massive investment in ICT
infrastructure ad technology, as well as in electricity and usage of other power sources that
promote internet usage, such as solar power and related power batteries.

The correlation between massive investment in CT infrastructure, tools and knowledge and the
success of virtual learning practice in Africa is contested by a number of scholars. In Africa,
Awidi and Cooper (2015), in their case reference to a Ghanaian university, highlight a
contestation between investments in ICT infrastructure and the lack of clear corporate e-learning
strategies and policies that facilitate successful virtual learning. The major setback of virtual
learning is mainly centred around an institutional obligation to reproduce face-to-face classrooms
online by means of existing distance education infrastructure (Turnball, 2021; Arasaratnam-
Smith & Northcote, 2017). Another scholar, van Stam (2021), also established that in Africa, the

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success of internet service provision depends on the effectiveness of the mobile service operators.
Absence of context specific policies, plans, rules, regulations and legislated implementation
frameworks have potential to contribute to e-learning failure, as the same ICTs can be used for
negative learning such as access to information on drugs, pornography and trafficking, to mention
a few (Barteit et al, 2019). Exploding what they term ‘myths’ around e-learning, Njenga and
Fourie (2010) argue for a balance between successful virtual learning and sanitised learning
through ICT usage as a trend. Munro (2018), citing the over-rated claims for success and the
over publicisation of virtual learning success in the United Kingdom, likewise propounds
warnings against education Neoliberalism, further arguing that the over emphasised usage of
technology can result in commercialisation of tools for education, and into subsequent
commercialisation of education.

4. METHODOLOGY
A triangulation of research methods, including an online survey with 65 participants sampled
from a population of curricula specialists, teachers and learners as well as with 35 key
informants, also sampled from a population of curricula specialists, teachers and learners. The
response rate for sampled study participants was 35 for the online survey (54%) and 24 for the
key informant interviews (69%). A review of available literature further aided the collection of
primary and secondary data for the study. Using key words to search, fifty three published online
journals, reports and articles were identified from the database search. A careful scanning of the
identified papers was done to eliminate all papers that were not directly related to the topic under
review. Finally, a total of thirty nine articles were reviewed. Quantitative data were analysed and
presented through tables and chats, and qualitative data was presented under relevant themes.

5. FINDINGS
The study sought to investigate challenges faced by the Zimbabwe education sector in integrating
effective virtual learning practice into the secondary school system in Harare Metropolitan
province, since the advent of Covid-19. We present findings from the both the quantitative and
the qualitative data.

At the outset, the study sought to establish the role of various educational technologies in
influencing the continuity of secondary school education after the Covid-19 lockdown. The
findings established two types of education technologies that were utilised for virtual learning in
Zimbabwe during the Covid-1 lockdown as computers and mobile phones. Hundred percent of
the respondents indicated that both these educational technologies played a major role to facilitate
the transition from physical learning to virtual learning. The specific roles of computers included
accessing learning platforms such as Google Classroom, Zoom, Moodle and Whatsapp groups,
typing of notes and assignments, as well as storing learning notes and related materials.
Computers also better facilitated the reading of text books owing to their screen surface which is
larger than that of a mobile phone. The role of computers was also highlighted as that of
transmitting information and documents through email, blue tooth or Send-it. The respondents
indicated that mobile phones had the same roles as that of computers, highlighting however that it
was difficult and time consuming to read big text books and bulky notes from the small surface of
mobile phones. While those respondents who did not possess computers still used mobile phones
for all learning tasks, all respondents generally agreed on the ideal role of mobile phones as that
of communicating with teachers and school mates, as well as transmitting documents and related
information to school mates and teachers. All respondents also agreed that where there is no
direct internet service installed, it is more affordable to use a mobile phone than a computer to
send documents from a distance, as blue tooth and share it can only send to devices in proximity.

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Secondly, the study sought to establish which ICT tools were most utilised by secondary school
learners to access virtual learning platforms during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Figure 1: Types of education ICT tools used

While all the respondents accessed learning material either through computers or through mobile
phones, the mobile phones, which are less expensive than computers, were established to be the
primary devices used. Only 30 percent of the students and teachers who participated in the study
attested to owning a family computer or a personal one and a personal mobile phone, whilst 100
percent of the responding students and teachers attested that they owned either a family mobile
phone or a personal one, because mobile phones were found to be more affordable than
computers.

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Figure 2: Type of internet service used

Furthermore, the majority of the respondents (85%) used mobile data packages to connect to the
internet and only a few (15%) indicated that they had a home WiFi connection and thus had a
choice to use either the installed WiFi service or the data, which again, makes mobile phones the
more utilised than the computer. These findings concurred with foregoing research findings by a
number of scholars, as noted in the reviewed literature. Donner and Gitau (2009) predicted that
the future of Africa is anchored on usage mobile phones. Further establishments were that there is
evidence to prove that mobile phone adoption rates in Africa are the highest than in the world
(Rumanyika, Tedre, Mikko & Mramba, 2019). Mobile phone adoption rates were further
projected to remain highest in Africa till at least 2025 (GSMA, 2019).

The final objective of the study was to establish the challenges that teachers and learners
encountered while transitioning to virtual learning during the Covid-19 lockdown. The key
finding under this objective was that virtual learning is very important for secondary school
children in Zimbabwe as a complimentary method of learning in both times of crisis and out of
crisis. The key argument was that virtual learning for secondary school learners was faced with a
many of challenges at the time of inception, and that these challenges still exist in their myriad
forms, and as such, virtual learning cannot entirely replace physical learning for secondary school
learners in Zimbabwe. The data presented by the respondents was organised into 5 relevant
themes, also supported by direct quotes that are presented below each thematic finding. In the
following section, the study expounds on the identified challenges, some of which expound on
some of the themes already identified in the presentation of quantitative findings above. All the
findings put together are critical determinants of successful virtual learning for secondary school
learners that policy makers should consider to roll out in full force both at policy and practical
levels, in order to establish permanent virtual learning service provision practice that can remain
effective both in crisis periods and in out of crisis periods.

5.1. Internet Accessibility Challenges

All the study participants, comprising curricula experts, learners and teachers concurred that both
teachers and learners experienced challenges in gaining access to the virtual learning and research

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platforms, as well as in accessing their emails for communication purposes. The most outstanding
quotes selected from the data are presented anonymously below:

Quote 1: It was always frustrating to get cut off in the middle of the lesson. Network connection is
always falling where I live, and sometimes I could hardly access the learning platform. I had to
rely on notes sent by a colleague after the lessons.

Quote 2: I often got booted out of the classroom whilst the lesson was on, when the data ran out.
Downloading materials sent through email by the teachers was likewise very expensive.
Most of the times virtual learning left me discouraged.

Quote 3: There was always a mismatch between the allowance that I got from the school for
mobile data bundles and the actual usage time that I got from the data bought. Many a time
the data got depleted before the end of the lesson or in the midst of an email. I ended up
using my own data to ensure that I provided service to the learners, and in most cases this was
never compensated.

Quote 4: My parents could hardly afford the mobile data expense because my father got out of
employment during the lockdown. It was hard to keep up with the virtual learning pace
without enough internet access.

Quote 5: My typing skills were terrible, I had gotten used to manual presentation of assignments.
It was always hard and slow to cope.

Quote 6: In Google classroom my problem was that I was always inaudible each time I wanted to
make a contribution. I could hear what the teacher and my classmates were saying but I could
not be heard. The microphone of my device was not working properly all the times.

Quote 7: As Education Officers we were in such a dilemma, we had no way of monitoring that
learning was being done according to expected standards because it was hard to listen in
to various learning platforms at the same time. Our mode of monitoring during physical
learning is attending classes to monitor the teacher during lessons. It was impossible on
virtual learning platforms.

At a general level, Zimbabwe has a challenged network coverage problem, especially in areas
that are remote form the city centres (van Stam, 2021; Gwaka, May & Tucker, 2018).
Furthermore, internet services are often congested. Furthermore, there are a few indigenous
internet service provision companies in Zimbabwe, namely Tel One and Econet, while the rest
that relied on provision of hardware from outside the country could not cope with the import
costs in a country that legal utilises local currency and yet businesses have to import with foreign
currency. The reality with internet access in Africa is that mobile network operators manage
fixed infrastructures that house a radio access network with base stations, a broadcast network
providing the communication spine, and a core network with alternating facilities and database
servers handling user information (van Stam, 2021). As such, what citizens are able to access,
and the speed with which they access the internet, all depend on the viability of a given mobile
network provider. Where there is limited competition like in Zimbabwe, effectiveness of internet
access if affected. While a few rich people from the rural areas could access mobile phones and
internet services, the speed with which they accessed internet still remained a huge challenge to
contend with. As such, comparing the state of secondary school learners from Zimbabwe with
that of secondary school learners from countries like China will further reveal how virtual
learning was indeed gendered in all spaces, from the micro to the macro levels, further
confirming the notions of geographies of insecurity (Philo, 2012) and geography of inequality

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(van Ham, Marley & Tammaru, 2022) already discussed in the theoretical framework sections.
Accessibility, as established by Alshehri, Rutter and Smith (2019), is a very important variable
that influences learners, parents and teachers perceptions of virtual learning, while also affecting
the delivery rate of learning, in any context.

5.2. Lack of Regulated Policy on Usage of Technology Usage

Zimbabwe also embraced the transition from physical to virtual learning in all schools that could
manage the dynamic, and these were mostly private schools and a few state run institutions. The
lack of preparedness in terms of resources and time frames, transition to virtual learning was
done haphazardly, without any policies, rules and regulations in place to ensure uniformity in
service provision. As such, virtual learning benefitted only a few, and its effectiveness, impact
and potential to replace physical learning during Covid-19 remain questionable. The following
quotes were likewise selected from the data, for their outstanding nature:

Quote 8: The challenge was to ensure that we caught up with the global trends, but we had no
binding laws, policies and regulations for doing virtual learning. As such, it was done
haphazardly, creating lots of gaps and inconsistencies in the manner of learning and delivery
of teaching services.

Quote 9: Internet provision in this country depends on the capability and willingness of the
service provider to deliver the service. The major challenge is that you cannot sue a service
provider for failure to provide network service because there are no policies for such.

Quote 10: It is difficult to regulate without laws and policies. Virtual learning was not done
systematically. Each school or teacher used the learning platform that was at their
disposal, which did not enable learners to benefit the same. There is need for policies on
virtual learning to be put in place.

Again, most citizens do not have internet sources installed in their homes, and rely on mobile
data networks which are too expensive to sustain effective daily learning, as established by the
findings in Figure 2. It is also noteworthy that the lockdown affected income levels for most
parents, who either had their jobs terminated or their salaries cut, and as such, money for mobile
network expenses became a real challenge. This finding concurs with van Stam’s (2021)
postulation that the success of accessing digital platforms in Africa depends on the viability of
mobile network operators (van Stam, 2021). All these factors combined, affected both the
teachers and the learners access to learning platforms. Virtual learning thus, remained a preserve
for the affluent who could afford both the mobile phones and the internet data, and also for those
in the city centres where there is internet coverage.

5.3. Ignorance of Technological Know-How and Inadequate Qualified Technology

Teachers

Before the advent of Coovid-19, not all schools in Zimbabwe made the study of ICTs
compulsory. Some learners and teachers did not have access to computers, except to mobile
phones only. As such, the period of transitioning to virtual learning became for some, the time to
seriously learn and get used to using ICTs. This delayed the uptake of the virtual learning
exercise, as well as affected the uniformity of the exercise, as some learners and teachers would
always lag behind. This challenge affected the effectiveness of virtual learning during Covid-19.

Quote 11: What we needed as preparation for the transition to virtual learning was the rolling
`out of technical lessons on how to use technologies for learning, for both teachers and learners
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alike. This was not possible given the crisis that was at hand. It was a huge set-back. We knew
this as education officers but there was nothing that could be done under the circumstances.

5.4. Lack of Adequate Parental Involvement in Virtual Learning Processes

Almost all teachers and learners who took part in the study highlighted many parents could not
assist their children with home work. Secondly, virtual learning did not facilitate any kind of
motivation on the part of learners and enough feedback on the part of teachers. Higher secondary
school learners argued that although they were mature enough to manage their learning on their
own, they used to benefit from the feedback that parents got from their teachers on parent day
events, when parents came for one on one encounters with their teachers. These feedback
sessions, in the learners’ views, helped them because teachers were able to make the parents
understand some of their needs especially for material and moral support, in a manner that they as
children could not make their parents understand. In the view of teachers, time constraints and
lack of technological know-how, as well as lack of internet facilities made it difficult for such
feedback sessions to be organised with all parents. The teachers also highlighted that there was
very little involvement of parents in terms of assisting their children in lower secondary school
with homework because families did not have enough gadgets; some mobile phones were too
small to accommodate more than one person at once for serious work.

Quote 12: We got cut off from the parents, who are very important allies in the learning process.
With virtual learning you cannot interact with the parent because there is shortage of
gadgets, there issue of data bundles and also some of the parents did not have
knowledge to access the learning platforms.

Quote 13: The virtual learning opportunity became both a blessing and a scare. Learners got too
exposed to technology, spending half their time on-line. Some of them took advantage of
this to divert to adult sites, which disturbed their learning. Parents at the same time
could not monitor this all the time as most students used mobile phones, which do not
permit interaction with others.

6. DISCUSSIONS
Overall, the results from this study revealed that the operationalisation of virtual learning in
Zimbabwean secondary schools during Covid-19, in the absence of physical learning, caused a
number of challenges for both learners and students in Zimbabwe. This confirms findings by
foregoing researchers who also established that due to its multiple complications, virtual learning
has only succeeded in presenting promises that it could not accomplish (Alkharang & Ghinea,
2013). While these scholars were referring to a period prior to Covid-19, the finding is indeed
still applicable now, further showing the complications associated with virtual learning. The
benefits of virtual learning cannot be over emphasised, yet the rendition for these benefits to be
realised is a prior fulfillment of other requirements that make the practice work for all.

While virtual learning is indeed good in terms of transcending the time and cost hurdles that
physical education brings, it can only work effectively and inclusively as a compliment to
physical learning, but never as an alternative to it in this context, to avoid the exclusion of the
majority of learners and teachers, as Uppal (2018) and Njenga and Fourie (2010) opined that
learner attrition rate increases in virtual learning as opposed to face to face learning. Virtual
learning can only work effectively for all after a lot of considerations such as policy reforms,
infrastructural development and training of trainers has been implemented first, as preparatory
measures. Perhaps the Covid-19 era was a learning period for Zimbabwe, for the whole of Africa,

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 International Journal on Cybernetics & Informatics (IJCI) Vol. 12, No.1, February 2023
and for the globe, on what needs to be done to make virtual learning a success both in times of
peace and in times of crisis, since ad hoc disaster risk mitigation may pose more challenges than
solutions.

7. CONCLUSIONS
I conclude that the transition from face-to-face learning to virtual learning, which happened in
some parts of the country during the Covid-19 lockdown, was a highly critical move which
remains important for secondary school education in Zimbabwe and beyond. However, given the
resource and other identified complexities in this country, virtual learning was not highly
effective as the better part of the population of students, teachers and parents were excluded from
enjoying its benefits. In Zimbabwe and similar countries in the Global South, virtual learning can
only be effective as a complimentary method of learning to physical learning, not as an
alternative to physical learning, in both times of crisis and out of crisis. There are a number of
considerations that policy makers should put into action to roll out effective virtual learning
practice that can remain effective both in crisis and out of crisis times, and these include investing
more in state of the art ICTs in both rural and urban areas in order to bridge the inequality gap
rural and urban citizens; ensuring that all schools and homes are electrified or have access to
alternative sources of energy that enable them to use ICTs and internet services; providing viable
internet services to all citizens at affordable and subsidised rates; rolling out training for ICT
usage to all able citizens, especially in all schools and putting in place binding policies that make
internet service providers commit to efficient service delivery, as putting in place policies and
regulations on how schools should provide online teaching services to learners.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements go to the College of Business, peace, leadership and governance at Africa

University for providing a small research grant to cover internet and communication expenses for
this study.

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AUTHOR

Dudziro Nhengu has submitted a PhD thesis to the College of business peace leadership
and governance at Africa University, where she awaits to graduate, pending assessment of
the thesis. She is currently based in Norton, Harare.

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